pected, and also found peculiar and personal traits of character, recognized to be both Christian and unique,—and which each might seek to imitate. We are looking for an exhibition of religious experience in these daily meetings, which shall be mighty as a convicting power, and push the Christian life into a higher plane. This has been measurably done during the past eight years.

These daily meetings have been a spot to which all distressed souls could run in the day of their distress, and secure help in bearing their burdens. The cases are almost countless in which the answer to the prayer has been immediate and palpable. If such daily opportunity were not offered, the heart could scarcely hold the burden until the weekly service of the church should occur. There are cases

in which the relief must be instantaneous, or the occasion will pass away. And to the place of daily prayers many a poor broken-hearted, suffering saint has gone, and with the help of Christian sympathy has laid the burden down at the feet of Jesus and gone forth strengthened for the duties of the day. When the shadow of a great grief has rested on the soul, in the daily meeting light has come through the riven cloud. And so our God has blessed it in the past, and made it the means of salvation to a multitude. And now our wonder is, that the church could, for so long time, do without this institution. She will not readily part with the daily prayer-meeting.

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AID OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN PRAYER.

"The Spirit also helpeth our infirmities."-Rom. viii. 26.

Languor may be the penalty of egotism in prayer. No other infirmity is so subtle or so corrosive to devotion, as that of an overweening consciousness of self. It is possible that an intense self-conceit should flaunt itself in the forms of devoutness.

"Ye are

To a right-minded man, some of the most astonishing passages in the Bible are the mysterious declarations and hints of the residence of the Holy Spirit in a human soul. We must stand in awe before any just conception of the meaning of such voices as these: "The Spirit of God dwelleth in you"-" God dwelleth in us the temple of God"--" Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost "Full of the Holy Ghost "-" Filled with all the fulness of God Praying in the Holy Ghost"-" With all prayer in the Spirit ""The Spirit itself maketh intercession for us."

But the mysteriousness of such language should not surprise us. Its mystery is only the measure of its depth. It is the reality which it expresses that is amazing, Let us not fritter it away by shallow interpretations. While, on the one hand, we are under no necessity of blinking the truth of the intense activity of the soul in any holy experience; on the other hand, we must discern in such phraseology the greater intensity of the Holy Spirit's action in a holy mind. The existence of the mind is no more a reality than this indwelling of God.-REV. Austin Phelps.

Practical Discourses.

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INHERENT SINFULNESS OF MAN.

"There is none good but one, that is God."-Matt. 19: 17.

Man viewed in himself is evil; he is defiled, unclean, impure and radically corrupt.

We do not say that liars, thieves, murderers and other criminals are bad and our christian brethren good, but that all men, in and of themselves, are "evil and only evil."

Are there not virtuous and holy men and women? Oh yes, but "Do not err my beloved brethren, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights."James 1: 16, 17. No man ever originated good. We cannot create good. By nature we are as crab trees, flourishing and luxuriant perhaps to the age, blooming, it may be, in the vigor of health, but until we are grafted we can only bear bitter and acid fruits.

The harmonial philosopher, Andrew Jackson Davis, with a host of other spiritualists, teach the doctrine that there is no such thing as positive evil; that what we call evil is only good in an undeveloped state. In opposition to this we affirm that all men are by nature corrupt, that evil is no more undeveloped good, than falsehood is undeveloped truth. They declare that all men are destined to an endless progression towards perfect happiness. So, if one of the infernals from the lowest hell were to appear, they would greet him as an undeveloped angel, and not as a devil. A desperado plunges his knife in a brother's heart, they excuse the murderer by saying that he was unfavorably situated, circumstances were against him, he could not have acted otherwise, he was not a bad man, there was no real evil in his nature, and in another sphere he will progress in holiness and happiness. Others tell us that the difference in men here is in consequence of their physical organization, and that when the mortal coil is thrown off, all mankind will stand before the pure God equally holy; the atheist who denied his Maker in his life and in his death, muttered curses instead of prayers, will arise at the resurrection to praise the God he served not when on earth; and the murderer will there meet his victim and unite with him in singing, "Hallelujah, for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth."-Rev. 19: 6.

These views are so specious, so plausible, so gratifying to the carnal-minded, that thousands of people swallow them with avidity.

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The doctrine of endless progression is particularly agreeable to many, and it does, perhaps, teach a great truth, as well as a monstrous error. In the future we shall all progress, but will it not be a progression according to the states we have attained to here? If a man mences pilfering, and the habit increases until death, and he dies a thief, will his further progression bring him to the companionship of those angelic spirits, who love others better than themselves?

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If a man die hungering and thirsting after righteousness, he will progress, no doubt, in goodness, because it is promised that such shall be filled. Is it not reasonable to suppose that the progress of the evil will be to the confirmation of their perversions, and the progress of the good to the development of their love of goodness.

We are told that if we will abandon the doctrine of man's sinfulness, and believe in "self-regeneration," that we shall have no need of churches and clergy. We answer: If we believe in self-regeneration, or as expressed by some, the development of one's own spirit, then we can not only dispense with preachers, but with the Bible and the Saviour too! But holding to the doctrine of man's sinfulness, and knowing that we are by nature prone to all evil, we can pray with David, "Create in me a clean heart, Oh God, and renew a right spirit within me."-Psa. 51: 10. With Job, (40: 4,) "Behold I am vile, what shall I answer thee?" With the pnblican, "God be merciful to me a sinner." With the leper, "Lord, if thou wilt thou canst make me clean."-(Matt. 8: 2.) With Peter, "Lord SAVE ME."-Matt.

14: 30.

This self-regeneration is not the new creation which the Lord Christ referred to when he told Nicodemus, "Except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God." Self-regeneration may be self-purification, self-exaltation, self-glorification, but christian regeneration commences in self-abasement; it is Christ entering the heart and casting out the demons of self-righteousness and self-deification, that He may reign supreme ruler over the affections. With every regenerated soul there is an enshrinement of Christ in the heart. Christ is the sun-centre of the christian system, and must be all in all to every converted soul.

We are told that Adam and Eve, after they had partaken of the fruit of the forbidden tree, hid themselves because they were naked. A spiritual truth may be deduced from this. The natural man is highly offended at being told he is not of himself pure and good. The unconverted spurn the idea of sinfulness. They do not feel that they are sinners, and experience no need of a Saviour. They say, We are more moral than your religious people. Your church-going, psalmsinging people are in no respect better than us."

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How differently discourses the devout and humble follower of Christ. In me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing."-Rom. 7: 18. The people of the Lord are ever ready to exclaim, (Isa. 64: 6,) 'We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags,"

Before the fall it is said, (Gen. 2: 25,) " And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed." The truth

taught here appears to be that they felt their dependence upon the Lord, and their own destitution of any self-originated good, and they stood up in this nakedness in the presence of God without shame. When they fell they were ashamed of this destitution, and in their pride sought to conceal it. Thus the fall of man was characterized by his pride or self-elevation, as the redemption of man is by his humility or self-abasement. The unconverted man may boast of his goodness, but he is but clothing himself with fig leaves, which conceal but poorly his spiritual nakedness. He may say, "I am rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing," when at the same time he is" wretched and miserable, and poor and blind and naked." (Rev. 3: 17.)

He that hath not the spirit of Christ is none of his." The spirit of Christ is one of humility and love; the lowliest disciple is ever the most loving, as the most unassuming flowers shed the sweetest fragrance. Now how is the Spirit of Christ obtained? Is it received by the exaltation of the natural man? Are we to look into ourselves for some traits of goodness which we can cultivate, until by the development of our natural virtues we can claim that we are actuated by the spirit of Christ? Not at all. We are to look out from ourselves. "Behold I stand at the door and knock; if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and sup with him, and he with me." It is thus the Lord acts with every one of us. What amazing love is manifested. He pictures himself standing and waiting at the door of our hearts, beseeching admitance. Who, then, dare say that God is unjust in requiring obedience to his commandments, when he is proffering his divine assistance to all who desire to obey them? If men become prodigals, the Lord waits for their return, and if they are coming back He will see them yet a great way off, and run to meet them with kisses of mercy.

It is asked, if man is so far fallen that he cannot of himself d any good thing, how can he believe? Is not belief a good thing To which this reply can be made: A man can no more believe without the aid of the Holy Spirit, than he can be warmed without heat. There is no more merit in a man's believing than there is in his growing. Yet he is equally required to make use of means for the continuance of animal life, as he is to seek those influences which will cause his spiritual growth. He can abstain from food for his body, starve himself and die a suicide; and he can, if he pleases, close all the avenues through which spiritual food can enter, and his soul shall die. As the natural sun rises upon the just and the unjust, so the spiritual sun of his love rises upon all. I can go forth in the beautiful days of Autumn and be warmed by the sun in the natural heavens, and my eyes shall be delighted with the gorgeous hues with which the leaves of our forest trees are now arrayed, and my ears will be greeted with the sweet songs of the choristers of the woods, until my senses shall be ravished with beauty, or-I may go and make my abode in a gloomy cave which shall deprive me of these sources of joy. So a man may hide himself in the gloomy caverns of self-deification, and be never warmed with the rays of the sun of righteous

ness, which arises to others with healing in his beams, and causes ecstatic pleasures we cannot describe. Is God, then, unjust?

We are told by others that if there is sin God is the author of it. That he is Omniscient. and when he created man he knew that he would sin, and foreknowing it he decreed it. These thoughts of God are not as exalted as were the ideas of the Stoic CLEANTHES, who flourished 240 years before our Saviour. He ascribes to Jupiter even "the purest moral character as being the cause of everything except sin, and prays for the divine teaching to scatter all darkness from the soul." We think the key to the solution of the difficulty concerning the origin of evil, is in the fact that God created man in freedom. He could have made man so that he should ever move in one direction, but God could not have made another absolutely perfect being, if so, that being would have been another God. God, being a God of love, is pleased only with the voluntary worship and service of his creatures. We believe, therefore, that the Lord created man in freedom and that he leaves him free to choose his own state.

We believe that man was not only created in freedom, but that he will be left in freedom to all eternity; that this is one of His fixed spiritual laws, and that God will no more force men than He will change one of His natural laws. Man is left free to make his own heaven or hell. God is love. God created man in love. Our earth was designed as a grand seminary for heaven, and if in this life men become matured for a less happy state of existence, it is only when they pervert their intellectual and moral powers. Our fair earth might again bloom as a Paradise of Eden, were men to love God supremely and their neighbors equally. Love to God and love to man is the all of piety, as love of self and love of the world is the all of impiety. Were men to cherish the spirit of Christ instead of the cultivation of their Own selfish loves, a millenial day would dawn upon our world. God forms men with capacity to become angels; they make themselves devils by perversion of good, and nourishing infernal hatreds, and where they live will be hell. who can charge God with making either hell or devils? God is not the author of evil. God made man upright, but he hath sought out many inventions," and the method of transmuting good into evil originated with man.

Yet

The infinite Jehovah with whom is all love, all power, and all wisdom, created man with rational faculties, with ability of selection or rejection, able to choose evil or good, to make himself an angel or a devil. Now if God is love, and force is repugnant to love, is it not to be believed that God so adjusts the influences that are brought to bear upon each one of us, that we are at some time in our lives in freedom. If God permits angels to be ministering spirits, sent forth to minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation, to move us to goodness, may he not also permit demons to tempt us to evil, that an equilibrium may be preserved; and if at any time there is this spiritual equilibrium, and when the man is equally influenced from heaven or hell, he deliberately turns to the broad road to perdition, scorns angelic companionship, or guardianship, and gives up his rational and